Leisurely watching red studies: reading Yu Pingbo's "Dream of Red Mansions"

Speaking of "A Dream of Red Mansions", I read it roughly once when I was a child, and read it more seriously when I was in college, but I stopped at eighty chapters both times and never read the sequel. This is because I have always heard that the last 40 times is a continuation of the dog's tail, and it is worth not reading it. It's always a pity to read a book that has no end and no end; besides, I haven't read the last forty times, so to say it's good or bad is nothing more than parody. This year, I finally read the sequel to the last forty chapters. I didn't expect that the more I read, the more angry I became. I originally planned to write a long essay to criticize, but then I read Cai Yijiang's articles "The Difference between the Sequel to "A Dream of Red Mansions" and the original "Dream of Red Mansions" and Yu Pingbo's book "A Dream of Red Mansions", which clearly explained the faults of the last forty chapters, and I also Discarded the idea of writing.

This "Dream of Red Mansions" is divided into three volumes, the first volume mainly discusses the last forty chapters of "A Dream of Red Mansions", the middle volume analyzes the first eighty chapters, and the second volume is some scattered research.

Yu Pingbo held a negative attitude towards the last forty chapters, and not only for the popular sequel, he simply said that "A Dream of Red Mansions" could not be continued, and the first chapter of the book was "On the Impossibility of Sequel". He thought that the article reflected the author's personality. Continuing to write "A Dream of Red Mansions" is even more difficult: "First, "A Dream of Red Mansions" is a literary book, not an academic thesis, and cannot be satisfied only by its appearance. Second, "A Dream of Red Mansions" is a realistic work, such as Continuers do not have a similar environment, their temperament, and even though they are extremely intelligent and extremely cautious, they are also incompetent.” I thought that the words could not be said, not necessarily all books could not be continued, but the sequel was indeed thankless. Gao E (let's think he is the author of the last forty chapters) is close to Cao Xueqin's time, and his language and living environment are not far behind.

Next, through specific research and analysis, Yu Pingbo pointed out that there are only 80 chapters in the original book, and the last 40 chapters are supplemented. There is a consensus in the academic community on this point, and there is no need to say more. What interests me most is his criticism of the last forty times. As mentioned earlier, I read Cai Yijiang’s article first, and the views in it are almost the same as those of Yu Pingbo, and I have the same feeling after reading it forty times (I am curious now, how could someone praise the last forty times, and I can find relevant information in the future). read the article).

Gao E's achievements are undeniable: first, the sequel promoted the popularity of "Dream of Red Mansions", and only a few were willing to read half of the book; second, Gao E's sequel generally conformed to the previous clues and retained the tragic atmosphere. Other than that it's all wrong.

As a sequel, the biggest problem is that it doesn't match the original. Although the original work has no ending, there are many hints in the previous article that the Jia family must have declined in the end. "A Dream of Red Mansions" has a strong autobiographical color. The author Cao Xueqin enjoyed prosperity and wealth when he was young, but later his house was raided and he became poor. This strong contrast between before and after, the sadness of his life experience, and the emptiness of life like a dream are the most important things in "A Dream of Red Mansions". Basic creative motivation. Although the sequel retains the tragic atmosphere, the content is greatly reduced. Only one member of the Jia family in the Ningfu family was raided, and was later pardoned by the emperor. Not only that, but Jia Baoyu, who clearly hated the imperial examination the most, was awarded the Juren together with Jia Lan. In the future, "Langui Qifang", Jia's family will be more prosperous. Even when Jia Baoyu became a monk in the end, he became an immortal, and the emperor even gave him the title of "Wen Miao Zhenren". The family tragedy has been diluted again and again, and the ending is almost "reunion".

The love between Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu is the main thread running through the book. In the sequel, Lin Daiyu died, and Jia Baoyu married Xue Baochai, continuing the original tragic intention, which is worthy of appreciation. The death of Lin Daiyu in the sequel is not unpleasant, but in order to achieve this effect, the middle process is horrific, destroying the plot logic and character modeling. Yuanchun died before this marriage, so Jia Baoyu was supposed to be in mourning; Xue Baochai's brother was in prison; Jia Zheng was going to be an official in a foreign country, and he was going to go abroad soon; The plot doesn't make sense. In order to prevent Jia Baoyu from resisting, Gao E arranged for him to lose the psychic treasure in the sequel and become a demented fool; in the sequel, Lin Daiyu became a troubled married daughter, thinking about marrying Baoyu all day long, and there was no such thing as a lady. Subtle, but also to persuade Baoyu to take the test of fame; Xue Baochai, who is deeply shrewd and the most sophisticated, has become a chess piece at the mercy of others; Jia's mother, who originally loved Lin Daiyu the most, has become ruthless and heartless, and forced Lin Daiyu to death; Bao Dailian's sister Feng wants to set up a bloody "package transfer plan" to frame people. As Eileen Chang said: "A person's language is tasteless, and his face is disgusting."

There are countless other minor flaws, which will not be repeated here. If I want to say that the sequel is a second-rate novel with occasional bright spots, the plot, writing, and style are quite different from the first 80 chapters. Reading in the sequel that Sister Lin eats kohlrabi and the Grand View Garden is haunted, it's simply disgusting.

In the first 80 chapters of the middle volume analysis, the core point of view is "autobiography", and it is believed that "A Dream of Red Mansions" is Cao Xueqin's autobiography. Yu Pingbo attributed Cao Xueqin's writing attitude to three points: first, underappreciated talent, lamenting his life experience; second, confession in love; third, biography for twelve hairpins. Then, based on Cao Xueqin's life experience, the chronology and location of "A Dream of Red Mansions" were researched.

Since Yu Pingbo was a well-known expert on red studies, he thought that he naturally highly respected "A Dream of Red Mansions". Unexpectedly, in the article "The Style of "Dream of Red Mansions", he wrote:

"In all fairness, "A Dream of Red Mansions" does not occupy a high position in world literature. This type of novel is on the same plane as all Chinese literature—poetry, words, and music. The characteristics of this type of literature are At most, it is only a reflection of personal life experience and personality. Although the attitude of "A Dream of Red Mansions" has the three layers mentioned above, it is always just a sense of life experience and words of sorrow. That is to say, the later repentance and realization, based on my inference from the wedge, also I can't get rid of the rut of Eastern thinking; but because old joys are hard to pick up, life experience is lost, regrets are nowhere to be seen, and I cry, so I write an article to solve my own complaints. That's it. Therefore, "A Dream of Red Mansions" is also similar in nature to Chinese-style idle books, and should not be included in the forest of modern literature."

Although he added later that "I like to read "A Dream of Red Mansions" very much, and I admire Cao Xueqin very much," he still believes that "A Dream of Red Mansions" is second-class in world literature. Next, he said, "As for today's Chinese literary and art circles, there is no doubt that "A Dream of Red Mansions" is still the first-class work." It seems that in his eyes, China's first-class works can only be regarded as the world's first-class works. Second wait.

Coincidentally, Hu Shi, Yu Pingbo's teacher and the founder of Xinhongxue, also disparaged "A Dream of Red Mansions". Quoting a few words from the Book of Yu Gaoyang: "In the textual research of tens of thousands of words (referring to Hu Shi's "A Dream of Red Mansions"), there is hardly a single word that praises the literary value of "A Dream of Red Mansions". In the background of talented people, of course, the insights and literary techniques of "A Dream of Red Mansions" will not be so brilliant." "I always feel that "A Dream of Red Mansions" is not as good as "School of Foreign Affairs"; in terms of literary technology, "A Dream of Red Mansions" is better than It's not as good as "Flowers on the Sea," and it's not as good as "The Travels of the Old Can."

The literary value of "A Dream of Red Mansions" will not be tarnished by the devaluation of some scholars, but this phenomenon is still worth exploring. I think that the Red School has been in operation for two hundred years from the Qing Dynasty to the present. "A Dream of Red Mansions" is a novel, but these red scholars do not read "A Dream of Red Mansions" as a novel. Some people in the old red school interpret "Dream of Red Mansions" as a political metaphor of anti-Qing and Fuming, and some people guess that "Dream of Red Mansions" is about Shunzhi and Dong Xiaowan, or about Nalan Xingde. These far-fetched fallacies have been verified by Hu Shi's "Dream of Red Chamber". "overthrown. Hu Shi verified that the author of "Dream of Red Mansions" was Cao Xueqin, and it was written by others for the next forty times, creating a new red school. Unexpectedly, this faction has embarked on the wrong path of "self-lore" again, taking "A Dream of Red Mansions" as Cao Xueqin's autobiography, and studying who Cao Xueqin is, "Red Learning" has become "Cao Xuexue".

Looking back at the views of Yu Pingbo and Hu Shi, there are actually great limitations. They were born in the late Qing Dynasty and grew up in the Republic of China. It was an era of losing power, humiliating the country, and in danger of survival. Scholars generally lost their national self-confidence, thinking that Western civilization was advanced and traditional Chinese culture was backward. Even Lu Xun went too far, criticizing Chinese medicine and Peking Opera for nothing. Under the influence of this prejudice, a typical old novel such as "A Dream of Red Mansions" naturally does not get good reviews.

In addition, "self-legend" itself is a derogation of the artistic value of "A Dream of Red Mansions". The value of a biography depends on its owner. Whether it is about Cao Xueqin or Cao's family in "A Dream of Red Mansions", it is nothing more than an official family in the Qing Dynasty. What's so special? Since "A Dream of Red Mansions" is regarded as an autobiography, the best thing to do is to praise it for being truthful. In "Dream of Red Mansions", Yu Pingbo wrote:

"The purpose of "A Dream of Red Mansions" is autobiography, and the bottom line of writing is sketching... All the characters in "A Dream of Red Mansions" are extremely ordinary, and there are many extremely dirty... The personality expressed in "A Dream of Red Mansions" is relatively weak. It is revealed... that his materials are all factual and cannot be altered arbitrarily, so he has to break the stereotype and offend the readers."

Later, he quoted his friend Fu Mengzhen as saying: "The biggest feature of "Dream of Red Mansions" is that it dares to offend people's psychology." The so-called dare to offend people, Yu Pingbo summed up two points: First, the characters are anti-masking, and the characters in the book have advantages and disadvantages; The second is to write tragedies, reflecting social problems.

This comment can be said to be quite outdated. Do today's readers read "A Dream of Red Mansions" and think that its feature is daring to offend people? Characters are not simply divided into good people and bad people, and they describe social tragedies. This can be done by any ordinary realistic novel or film and television drama today. If it is really just that, why is "A Dream of Red Mansions" respected as a masterpiece? Yu Pingbo also said that the advantage of "A Dream of Red Mansions" is "resentment but not anger". This is just to say that the emotional expression of "A Dream of Red Mansions" is relatively restrained. As early as "The Analects", it was mentioned that "pleasure is not obscenity, and sorrow is not sad". Nor is it an uncommon advantage.

Art appreciation is not a science, it is a subjective thing. A person's ability to appreciate art depends on perception and nature, not purely the accumulation of knowledge. Therefore, there are talented poets, painters and musicians in this world who can reach the peak of art at a young age. The Hongxue experts who study "A Dream of Red Mansions", especially the faction who are good at textual research, have naturally strong academic skills, but this does not mean that their ability to appreciate novels is better. On the other hand, it is precisely because most of the people in this group are pedantic and lack freedom and ease in character, they are more likely to dig into the horns of old papers, and sometimes they are not as clear as ordinary readers. In the final analysis, millions of readers like "A Dream of Red Mansions", not because of the anti-Qing Dynasty and Ming Dynasty, nor because it is a true and accurate autobiography, nor because it reflects the class struggle, but because "A Dream of Red Mansions" is vivid. Characters, beautiful words, and exquisite plots can bring great aesthetic pleasure. If you can't even see this point, isn't it going in the opposite direction and asking for fish?

Once divorced from literature, research on red studies is just a niche entertainment. For example, the exploration of the ending of "A Dream of Red Mansions", I admit that it is interesting, and anyone will be curious about how the plot will develop after 80 episodes. But "A Dream of Red Mansions" is a fictional novel after all. Without the original manuscript, what's the point of guessing whether Jia Baoyu married Xue Baochai or Shi Xiangyun? How can it increase or decrease the value of "A Dream of Red Mansions" by half? Therefore, I just casually read some of the articles in "A Dream of Red Mansions", just for entertainment and boredom.

If you want to understand the research ideas of Xinhongxue, this "Dream of Red Mansions" is worth reading, and the specific point of view is different.

Leisurely watching the red school: reading Yu Pingbo's "Dream of Red Mansions"